An Australian sniper killed a Taliban commander at an incredible 3079 yards (2815 meters) with a Barrett M82A1. The Daily Telegraph reports …

Two marksmen using Barrett M82A1 50 calibre rifles simultaneously fired. The bullets were six seconds in the air. One killed the Taliban commander. It is not known for certain which sniper fired the fatal shot.

…

As the bullet yawed through the thin air on a windless morning, GPS aids measured the distance at 2815m. That amounts to 2 1/2 times the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The targeted Taliban would not have heard the gunfire.

That is an impressive feat, but calling it a world record is unfair in my opinion. Lets call the two snipers Sniper A and Sniper B. Lets assume they are equally skilled and that each has a 5% chance of making a kill at 3079 yards. The probability of “Sniper A or Sniper B making a kill at 3079″ is 10% (both events are independent, so the probability is cumulative). Two snipers have a much higher chance than one sniper, for example world record holder Craig Harrison, have.

Now you might argue that one sniper did make a kill that was 3079 yards. If that sniper was known by someone, even the sniper himself, I would call it a record. Look at it another way, if we lined up twenty snipers with Barrett M82A1 rifles and each fired one shot at the enemy simultaneously and made a kill, would you call that a record?

[ Many thanks to Remi for the tip. ]